


Green Wednesdays

by starfleetgirl



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Radio, Bakery and Coffee Shop, But it gets better I promise, F/F, F/M, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining, jasper isn't very nice in this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-04
Updated: 2016-08-04
Packaged: 2018-07-29 05:06:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7671220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starfleetgirl/pseuds/starfleetgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Monty Green is a sophomore in college with his own radio show at the college station every Wednesday night. When he starts mentioning his small crush on a guy he knows called Miller his listeners and his friends push him to talk about it more. As Monty's friendship with Miller grows he hides his show from him so Miller won't find out about his feelings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Green Wednesdays

**Author's Note:**

> I literally wrote this a year ago before season 3 of the 100 had come out yet and when I still felt optimistic that minty could happen. I stumbled across it the other day and realised I'd almost written 20,000 of minty last summer before going to uni and forgetting all about it. I had a bit of time the past couple of days and decided to give it a quick read through and post it. It's not beta read and I haven't had time to check through it much so sorry for any mistakes.
> 
> It was loosely inspired by welcome to nightvale. The idea of a radio host having a crush on somehow and gushing about him to his all listeners like Cecil used to do about Carlos when they first met. 
> 
> The lgbt issues are completely influenced by my own limited bisexual experiences so sorry if anything seems ignorant, please let me know if anything is.
> 
> Warning for major Jasper bashing at points but it'll all turn out fine in the end I promise.

Monty still isn’t sure how he ended up getting involved with his college’s radio station. Looking around the small studio had made him wonder about how he’d ended up with a weekly show there, which he’d now had for almost 5 months. Before college Monty never had any interest in radio. He was a shy kid who didn’t enjoy public speaking and only had a small interest in music. Now he was the host of his own radio show. It wasn’t the college experience he had expected to have but he did enjoy it. 

The show was called Green Wednesday’s, which Jasper used to say was lame, but Monty always ignored him.

Jasper was mostly the reason behind why Monty did get involved with radio. He’d made Monty follow a freshman girl there in the second week of their sophomore year. When they got there Jasper had panicked and somehow Monty had ended up with a slot hosting a show on Wednesday nights. 

Surprisingly Monty had found out he wasn’t terrible at it. At first things hadn’t been easy. Monty liked music, everyone likes music, but it wasn’t something he was particularly passionate about. Now suddenly he was expected to fill 4 hours with talking and music. 

The talking part had come easier than the picking music. Monty tended to be quite shy around people that didn’t know him well but he found that when he wasn’t talking into anyone in particular it was quite easy to just pretend he was talking to himself. 

At the start Jasper had helped him a lot. The girl they’d stalked across campus, Octavia, became Monty’s saving grace when it came to finding songs to play.

It turns out that her boyfriend worked at the radio station and practically ran it too, despite still being in his third year of college. An intimidating, muscular, tattooed man named Lincoln who had caused Jasper to almost spill his coffee all over himself when Lincoln had appeared behind them as Jasper had attempted to flirt with Octavia. 

That was the moment when Jasper’s babbling had landed Monty with a radio show. 

Monty still isn’t sure how it was him who ended up doing it instead of Jasper but he’s grateful that he is.

“One hour left,” whispered Octavia putting a coffee down beside him before exiting the booth.

Monty grinned at her as a silent thank you and then continued to talk to his listeners, “Okay so that was the Anthony & the Johnsons version of Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door. We should probably speed it up a bit now but before that I’m opening the floor to my listeners, my 3 wonderful listeners, it’s Monty’s advice hour, please text, call, email us, details are on the stations site. Let’s play another song while we wait for my people to get in touch.”

Octavia smirked at him from the other side of the glass and Monty took a sip of his coffee. He was nervous. Monty’s advice hour was a segment they’d been doing forever. Jasper had always used to call up but he didn’t anymore. Harper or Clarke normally would too but he knew they were busy tonight. They often got the odd stranger calling but not every week.

When the song ended there were no calls or messages.

“No one needs advice tonight then?” asked Monty, “What should we do instead?” He was looking at Octavia who just shrugged at him. After a moment of silence, which is always worst when on the radio, Monty decided, “Let’s change the segment to Monty’s diary, let me tell all of my dear listeners about my day.”

Octavia was definitely giggling at him. He ignored her.

“Well I woke up and ate breakfast with my flatmate Harper, Jasper was out already, or maybe he stayed at his girlfriends last night and never came home, I’m not sure. And then I went to my first lecture, math, and the cute guy in front of me asked if he could borrow a pen and honestly that was probably the highlight of my day.” Octavia coughed loudly. “Other than seeing Octavia of course.”

Turning on her microphone, which she usually never did, Octavia preferred to stay out of the spotlight when it came to the show. Once he’d gotten to know her well Monty had thought that was uncharacteristic of her, she liked to be the center of attention most of the time but when they did the show she focused more on the music and less on the talking. Octavia asked, “Who’s the guy? Do you like him?”

Monty paused for a moment before answering, “His name’s Miller.” He assumed Miller wouldn’t be listening to his radio show, not many people did. He really hoped he wasn’t. “I kind of like him, he’s cute, I don’t know him that well.”

“Nathan Miller?” asked Octavia.

“Yes…”

The animated expression on Octavia’s face immediately told Monty that he’d made a mistake by revealing Miller’s name.

“That’s my brother's flatmate!” she yelled. 

Monty tended to forget Octavia’s brother was the same age as him. He’d only met him a few times at the radio station and once when he was seeing Monty’s friend Raven.

Octavia continued, “I can definitely help set you two up!”

“No no no no no!” protested Monty, “I don’t want to be set up with him, I just want to stare at the back of his head in class and admire how attractive he is, nothing more.”

“Why not? That makes no sense.”

Monty wasn’t sure why he didn’t want Octavia to set them up. It just seemed like a bad idea to him. A definite way to embarrass himself. Yeah he didn’t want to do that.

“Okay maybe you could mention him to me? See what he thinks about me? I don’t know. Please try to be subtle!”

Octavia scoffed at him. “Of course. I’m great at being subtle.”

“Sure you are. Well I think I should probably play another song now. So yes, that was Monty’s diary time, it kind of turned into Monty’s question time too, if you want to send me some questions to answer for next week then that might be our new segment since no wants advice from me. Yeah anyway this is We Come Running by Youngblood Hawke.”

*

When he got back to his apartment that night Harper was watching TV and Jaspar was in his room. 

“Shouldn’t you be asleep?” he asked her.

His show didn’t finish till midnight but his first class wasn’t till 11 the next day so it wasn’t too bad. Harper’s was at 9.

Ignoring him, Harper teased him, “I heard you on the radio confessing your love for Nathan Miller,” as Monty sat down next to her.

“I said I thought he was cute, don’t exaggerate.” Monty was blushing. “I thought you weren’t going to listen tonight?

“I managed to catch the end when my shift finished,” she said turning to face him and crossing her legs, Monty suddenly felt like he was at a girly sleepover, “You do realise that you said that on a public radio show that people at college with us who may know Miller or may even be Miller will be listening to?”

Monty felt a mixture of worry and panic creeping into his mind, he tried to pretend he wasn’t nervous and play it off. He shrugged, “Yeah but no one listens to my show except you and Clarke so I assumed I’d be fine.”

“Yeah true,” grinned Harper before turning back to her show. Monty rolled his eyes at her before finally paying attention to watch she was watching. Orphan Black. Good choice.

For some reason the pair stayed up another hour watching TV before trudging back to bed. Monty stared at Jasper’s door for a moment before entering his room, thinking how strange it was that they lived together but hadn’t seen each other in days. 

*

The next morning Monty met Clarke for coffee in the coffee shop/ bakery (Sky Bakery) where she worked with Harper. If both of them were free before their math class, they always met to get coffee before going to the class.

Monty had met Clarke through his former roommate Finn early in their freshman year. He’d thought Clarke had just been a girl that Finn had started seeing at the start of college, along with another girl he’d be seeing called Raven. It wasn’t until Raven turned up to their room to see Finn one day that Monty and both girls discovered the truth.

It turned out that Raven and Finn had known each other since they were kids and had been dating for a few years, Finn moved away in their last year of high school but they continued to date long distance. He’d met Clarke at his new school and they started dating towards the end of their senior year. When Monty found out how long Raven had been with Finn he told her about Clarke immediately. Raven hadn’t been very happy.

Finn hadn’t been pleased that Monty had ‘betrayed’ him. Monty spent the next two days hiding at Jaspers until Murphy (Jasper’s roommate) finally said, “Do you want to switch rooms with me? Your roommate sounds like an asshole but I’m an asshole too so we’ll probably get on fine.”

To this day, whenever Monty bumps into Murphy at Sky Bakery he always buys him coffee as a thank you. Murphy never refuses.

After helping end both their relationships with Finn, Monty hit it off with Clarke and Raven, the three of them became close friends.

“Harper text me last night that you said on your show you liked Miller,” said Clarke as they walked to class.

Monty blushed. “Yeah, well I said I thought he was attractive and then it turned out he’s Bellamy’s roommate.” 

“Yeah he was his roommate last year too.”

“When he was dating Raven?”

Clarke laughed. “I wouldn’t call what they were doing dating. That kind of implies it was more than just sex.”

“Yeah well I feel slightly more comfortable saying they were dating rather than having casual rebound sex.”

When they got to class, Clarke was still laughing at Monty’s choice of words. Miller was already sat down in the seat in front of Monty. He felt his face flushing as soon as he saw him. Clarke winked at him when they sat down and Monty glared at her which only made her laugh at him again. He was starting to wonder why he was even friends with her.

“Hey Miller,” said Clarke with a mischievous grin on her face. 

“Hi, hey Monty.”

Monty managed to force out a small hello, he didn’t usually get so awkward and nervous around Miller but after admitting to an unknown amount of people, any of which could be in the room with them, that he had a thing for Miller, he definitely felt a bit anxious about speaking to him.

Thinking about it, he was sure Roma was smirking at them, she was sitting in the same row as Miller but 7 seats away from him. Monty quickly looked away from her feeling even more awkward.

Clarke asked, “Have you finished the questions for Monday yet?”

“I’ve done most of it, there’s one question I haven’t done,” he answered, “Have you finished it?”

“Yeah I have, I should probably read over it again and check it before I hand it in though, did you finish it Monty?” 

Monty admitted embarrassedly. “No I’m about halfway through it. I was going to finish it tonight.”

“I could go through it with you, if you need any help,” offered Miller, “Clarke would probably be more help than me though.”

Monty shook his head. “No that’s okay thanks, I think I get it, I’ve just been procrastinating doing it.”

The teacher walked in after that ending the conversation. Moments later Monty felt his phone buzz in his pocket. Clarke had text him.

Clarke: Miller asked if you wanted to meet up outside of class! Why did you say no?! 

Monty: he just wanted to study and I don’t need any help and I feel awkward after last night

Clarke: don’t feel awkward, he obvs didn’t listen to it

Monty: i know but other people did!!!!

Monty didn’t regret turning Miller’s help down. In the state he was in at that moment, he knew he would have been an awkward mess if he’d been left alone with Miller.

Clarke and Monty had different classes after math class so she didn’t get a chance to harass him further about Miller. Unfortunately Miller’s next class seemed to be in the same direction as Monty’s and they ended up practically walking across campus next to each other in silence.

Eventually Miller turned to him with a small smile on his face, “Hey.”

“Hi,” replied Monty quietly, there was a moment of silence before Monty said, “I was talking to my friend Octavia the other night and she told me you live with her brother Bellamy.”

“Yeah we roomed together last year and then we decided to live together this year too,” informed Miller. He was being very talkative today. More than Monty was used to him being. “How do you know Octavia?”

Monty wasn’t sure how to answer that but he reluctantly decided to be honest. “I work with her and her boyfriend at the college radio station. That’s where we met.”

“What do you do there?” he asked.

This was where Monty decided he had to lie. Miller could not find out about his show.

“Mostly the technically stuff and just helping out with odd jobs around the station.”

Miller asked, “Do you enjoy it?”

“Yeah it’s pretty fun,” he answered, “Well um I’m going that way now, I’ll see you…” Monty wasn’t sure how to finish that sentence.

“I’ll see you in math on Monday,” Miller finished for him.

Monty smiled, relieved. “Oh yeah, see you Monday.”

*  
Saturday evenings tended to be pizza and beer night in Monty’s apartment with Harper, Octavia, Clarke and Raven. 

Octavia came round before the others to work on the show for Wednesday. It didn’t take them as long as it used to pick to out songs and they pretty much always followed the same format.

“I like the Monty’s question time idea,” she said, “We should leave that in. I’ll put something on the radio stations social media pages and get people to send in questions.”

Harper teased, “You mean get me and Clarke to send in questions.”

Octavia laughed but admitted. “Yeah that’s true.”

“Don’t use my first name when you talk about it, just use Green, like in case Miller see’s it.”

She asked, “Planning on talking more about your crush on the show?”

“Not a crush and no.. well... I might get some questions about it,” responded Monty blushing. 

Octavia smirked at him. “I mentioned him to you.” Monty looked worried. “I was subtle, I promise, I mentioned I was seeing you later and I asked what he thought about you, he didn’t say much, just that you were nice and friendly and a bit quiet, but that he couldn’t really say anything about that since he talks less than you do.”

Monty sighed, relieved, thinking that conversation could have gone much worse.

Clarke and Raven arrived later with the beer. The pizza arrived moments later. The group were spending the night watching season 3 of parks and recreation. 

“Clarke told me you like Miller,” said Raven when she sat down next to Monty.

Monty cried, “Oh my god Clarke can you stop talking about this to everyone!”

“Hey I’m not everyone! We live together! She has to tell me things, it’s the roommate code,” grinned Raven taking a sip of her beer.

Raven and Clarke became really close after they both dumped Finn. So close that they started living together.

“Yeah okay I don’t really mind her telling you,” he turned to Clarke to scowl at her, “But she keeps going on about my crush on Miller and it’s annoying.”

“You admitted you have a crush!” exclaimed Octavia excitedly.

Monty covered his face in his hands and whined, “You all need to stop this.”

Raven changed the subject, slightly, “Honestly, I always thought you liked Jasper.”

“No… well I did for a bit in high school but even then I only liked him for a few weeks before I realised how incredibly straight he is.”

Raven commented, “I still think you’d be cute together.”

“Raven no, Monty and Miller are the cutest, you should see how flustered Monty gets when Miller talks to him,” said Clarke smirking at him.

“Shut up Clarke.”

“Make me.”

“Okay let's fight, right now, come on, let’s go.”

Octavia whispered, “Monty you are such a sweet little cinnamon roll.”

The girls all started laughing at him uncontrollably. It was more like cackling than laughter. Monty thought again about whether he should get new friends, but when he mulled it over he realised being called a sweet little cinnamon roll was actually quite a kind compliment. 

Once the girls finished mocking him, Raven asked, “Where is Jasper tonight?”

Harper frowned. “Where do you think he is? With his beloved Maya.”

“I think the last time I actually spoke to him might have been Monday and that was about grocery shopping,” murmured Monty.

The situation with Jasper made him feel miserable so he tried not to think about it too much.

Raven squeezed his hand and offered him another slice of pizza. Monty decided he definitely didn’t need to get new friends. 

*

Octavia spoke into her microphone, “Okay so this is our official new segment. Monty’s question time. I’ll be asking him some of the questions already sent in by listeners but you can send some in while we’re on air too. Tweet us at @arkuniradio or find or us on facebook or tumblr. Be sure to like and follow us too.”

Monty grinned at Octavia, she did love working at the radio station but he knew a big reason she did it was because Lincoln was so passionate about it. That’s why she put so much effort into it.

“First question from peggyromanoffs on tumblr, what’s your favourite colour?” asked Octavia with a smirk. That was Harper’s URL.

“Well green obviously or burgundy, I like that colour too.”

“From @JMurphy if you were a superhero what would your power be?”

“Oh that’s a good question! I actually quite like Sue Storm’s powers from the fantastic four, invisibility and force fields, I think she definitely get’s the best powers out of all of them.”

“From anonymous on tumblr, what happened to.. oh we don’t get need to answer that one.” Octavia looked really panicked.

Monty asked, “What’s the question O?”

She reluctantly answered quietly, whispering as if the people listening on the radio wouldn’t be able to hear her, “What happened to Jasper? He used to be on the show all the time but he hasn’t been on it for months. Did something happen between you?”

“Oh.” Monty paused for a moment, wondering how honestly he should answer this question. He knew Jasper wasn’t listening but still, did Monty even want to talk about it? 

Eventually he decided to be honest. “Well um firstly thanks for listening to my show for such a long time. I really appreciate it. So what happened with Jasper, um, it’s pretty cliche but he got a girlfriend and we drifted apart. We still live together with Harper but we aren’t really friends anymore which is pretty awkward. We’re kind of hoping he moves in with his girlfriend soon but they’ve only been together a few months so he probably won’t. He does spend most of his time there already though. Jasper did that thing people sometimes do when they get in a relationship, he became obsessed with his girlfriend and ditched his friends. It was kind of more than that too though. I’m not blaming his girlfriend, I won’t say her name but I will say it’s not her fault, not really. She did say she thought it was weird that Jasper was living with his gay best friend that used to have a crush on him and with a girl he used to date, but he and Harper didn’t even date for long, it was barely a month. His girlfriend listened to the show when Jasper was on it, we we’re talking about our friendship and I mentioned how I used to have a crush on him but how we we’re so close now and it would be weird to still feel that way about him. Apparently she got uncomfortable about my crush but honestly I don’t think it’s her fault that Jasper pretty much stopped being my friend. I know Jasper. He probably got scared of losing her and overreacted. Yeah it just kind of hurts that he didn’t mind losing our friendship instead. Wow yeah um sorry I just poured my feelings out to you all on the radio. Um, another question O?”

Octavia looked very concerned about him at that moment but she tried to force a small, encouraging smile on to her face.

“Oh these are from my roommate Monroe, firstly what’s your favourite movie and…” Octavia paused to giggle. “Please tell us more about your crush on Miller?”

“Oh my god, thanks Octavia,” groaned Monty.

She protested, “It was Monroe not me.”

“Don’t pretend you didn’t put her up to it!” cried Monty shaking his head at her.

Instead of responding Octavia shrugged, wearing a trying too hard to be innocent smile on her face, which ended up in only making her look more guilty.

“My favourite movie is probably The Dark Knight but I really like all the movies in the trilogy.”

“And?”

“I don’t have much to say about my small, very tiny, completely insignificant, crush on Miller,” he confided Monty, “We’re talking a bit more at the moment in and after class because I’m pretty sure Clarke has made it her mission to get us together but there’s nothing else to tell really because I don’t see him any time but class.”

Octavia winked at him. “I can change that.”

“Octavia no.”

“Yes Monty,” bubbled Octavia, “I’ll sort it out with Bell, don’t worry.”

Monty was worried.

*

Before math, Clarke and Monty actually decided to get to Sky a bit earlier than normal so they could sit down and eat some pastries too. It was Clarke’s idea.

Monty queued for their coffee’s and food while Clarke got a table for them to sit at. When he turned to sit with her, someone was sitting there too.

“Miller.. hi.”

“Hey Monty,” said Miller not feeling like he needed to explain what the hell he was doing sitting next to Clarke.

Clarke explained, “I told Miller we usually come here before class.”

“Oh.”

She grinned. “Let me go get you a coffee, what do you want?”

“You don’t have to, I can go get it,” Miller insisted starting to stand.

“No it’s okay I work here, I’ll just slip behind the counter and make it, I need to talk to Jackson about my shifts this week anyway.” Clarke seemed to be really taking this setting up Miller and Monty idea seriously.

Clarke went to get Miller a latte leaving Miller and Monty sat at the table alone.

Monty sipped his drink awkwardly, the coffee scorched his lips but he tried to not react to it, gulping down the uncomfortably hot liquid in an effort to feel less anxious.

Finally he said, “Do you think we’ll get our questions back today?”

Miller answered, “Probably not. I don’t know how it takes so long to mark math questions. It always seems to take Jaha ages.”

“It does,” agreed Monty, “Yeah I mean all he really has to do is check the answers with a markscheme. It’s not the same as marking a paper.”

Miller made a noise of agreement and they lapsed back into silence. 

Monty struggled to think of something to say. Eventually Miller asked, “Does Harper work here too?”

“Yeah she does, she got Clarke the job here when Clarke was…” Monty trailed, he didn’t really want to talk about Clarke's private business. 

Miller wondered, “When she got cut off?”

Monty nodded. “She told you about that?”

“Yeah,” he answered, “I didn’t have a great relationship with my dad for while, I think Clarke wanted to talk to someone who got understood what that was like.”

“Do you now? Have a good relationship?” Monty worried he was overstepping his boundaries.

Miller didn’t seem to mind the question. “Yeah we’re good now, it was a while ago, my dad’s a cop, I got in trouble for stealing, you can see why that would be even more of a problem for him than it would be for most parents.”

“Yeah,” said Monty not sure what else to say, “It’s good things worked out well with you two and with Clarke and her mum.”

Miller grinned. “Definitely… it would be weird if Clarke was still doing premed.”

“I hear my name,” sang Clarke putting a coffee down into front of Miller and reclaiming her seat.

Monty informed her. “We we’re talking about when you were a premed major.”

“Oh yes what fun those days were,” smirked Clarke, “So glad I changed to art, you’re glad aren’t you Miller?”

“Of course, I love having art classes with you.” His tone full of teasing sarcasm.

As Clarke and Miller chatted about the other class they shared Monty took the time to look round the bakery. He noticed two people he vaguely knew, Sterling and Mel, looking in his direction. He wasn’t sure they were looking at him until Sterling noticed him looking at them and raised his eyebrows at him. Sterling was grinning, he looked over at Miller and then gave Monty a thumbs up. Mel started giggling and hit Sterling’s hand. Monty started blushing and literally felt like he wanted to disappear.

Neither Clarke or Miller seemed to notice the exchange which Monty was thankful for. Obviously more people listened to his radio show than he thought.

When the food and coffee was finished the three of them walked to class. On the walk over Monty was sure he saw two other people smirk at him when he saw that he was walking with Miller. One was Clarke’s friend Wells and the other was Murphy. When they got to class Monty is sure he saw Roma beaming when she saw him walk in with Miller.

Monty decided he needed to stop mentioning Miller on his show.

*

“Hi Monty, Harper, come in,” said Bellamy Blake stepping back from the door allowing Monty to enter his and Miller’s apartment.

Harper grinned. “We brought pizza!”

Octavia was sat at the table in the kitchen area, sheets spread out in front of her. She ushered Monty and Harper over to sit with her.

Bellamy took the pizza off Harper with a thanks and put it down on the table, then he got them some drinks.

Monty said, “Thanks for letting us come here.”

“It’s okay,” replied Bellamy, “O said you’re roommate kicked you out to have sex with his girlfriend.”

Harper giggled, “Wow you really are just are blunt as Octavia.”

Monty told Bellamy the story of how they ended up at his apartment. It started with Clarke having to pick up an extra shift at Sky. Then Raven called Harper to cancel on pizza and beer night too because she may have a date. Harper pestered her for information about who was taking her on a date but Raven wouldn’t give anything up. Part of Monty worried it might be Finn.

Harper and Monty ordered pizza for them and Octavia who was still coming round to work on the radio show. Moments after the pizza arrived, Jasper came home. That was when things took a turn for the worst.

“Having your pizza night again?” demanded Jasper. He sounded angry.

Monty offered, “Would you like some?”

“No I don’t!” yelled Jasper, “However I would like to be able to bring my girlfriend into my own apartment on a saturday night instead of always having to go to her’s just because my two roommates always get the place where we all live on a saturday!”

Harper protested, “We never said you couldn’t bring Maya round and you never asked if you could have the place to yourself tonight or any other saturday!”

“Well I’m asking now!”

“No you’re yelling now and it’s a bit late notice to be honest!”

Jasper was practically screaming now. “I shouldn’t have to give notice to be able to bring my girlfriend to my own apartment!”

“Yeah but if you want us to be gone when she gets here then you need to give us notice asshole,” snapped Harper.

Jasper shouted back at her. “I need you guys to not be here because she knows you don’t like her and you make her uncomfortable.”

Monty sighed, picking up the pizza. “We don’t dislike Maya. Honestly it’s not Maya that’s the problem Jasper, you’re the problem. Come on Harper let’s go somewhere else.”

And that was how the two of them ended up at Bellamy and Miller’s apartment.

Octavia exclaimed, “Harper you badass” and then high fived her. 

“Thanks,” grinned Harper. “So where’s Miller?”

Bellamy answered, “Out with our friend Murphy, do you know Murphy?” Monty nodded and then Bellamy continued, “He fought with his girlfriend Emori and Miller went to comfort him.” Then he looked at Monty. “He shouldn’t be back for a while so you can plan your show here without him finding out about it.”

Monty groaned at Octavia. “You told him about the Miller thing?”

“No. I didn’t,” said Octavia with a surprised tone.

Bellamy rolled his eyes at his kid sister and mumbled, “I found out by listening to the show, you talk about it all the time O and you put a lot of effort into helping Monty so yeah, of course I listen to the show whenever I can.”

“Bell,” breathed Octavia with a small smile on her face and wide eyes, “That’s really sweet of you.”

Harper and Monty felt like they were interrupting a beautiful family moment.

Bellamy smiled, “Well it’s actually quite a good show, I don’t mind listening to it.”

Monty said, “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” replied Bellamy, “I’m actually going out in a bit but you guys are welcome to stay as long as you like. I’ll just be in my room...”

The three friends sat round the kitchen table planning Monty’s radio show. Harper didn’t often help out with the show but after leaving their apartment in a rush she hadn’t had a chance to grab any work to do and so tried to contribute to the planning as best she could. 

Out of the three of them Octavia listened to the most music and definitely had the best taste. Almost all of the songs Harper listened to were from the playlist they played at the bakery when she was working. Harper now knew all the words to every James Morrison song ever written. 

Harper teased Monty. “I wonder what kind of music Miller listens to.”

Octavia said. “I think his CD’s are over there.” 

On the other side of the room there was a CD player and a stack of CDs. Octavia went to grab them so the trio could look over them.

Harper cooed, “Aw he still buys CD’s. Cute.”

Miller had a lot of CDs. His taste was very varied. He had some of the classic Beatles albums but also everything Beyonce had ever released. He had Bastille, Florence and the Machine, Arctic Monkeys and even Joni Mitchell. 

Monty beamed, “He has the 1989 album.”

“It’s a good album,” said Octavia, “We should play one of the songs off there but not shake it off or bad blood please.”

Harper added, “Or blank space.”

Monty suggested, “What about wildest dreams.” Octavia agreed to playing that song.

Bellamy came out of his room after changing into some slightly nicer clothes. 

Octavia asked, “Are you leaving now?”

“Yeah.”

Harper smiled at him. “Thanks again for letting us come over Bellamy.” 

“You’re welcome, if you’re roommate if ever a dick again you guys are welcome to hide from him here,” joked Bellamy.

Harper smirked, “We might as well move in here then, Jasper is always a dick.”

Bellamy chuckled in response and then said. “Well if you guys do want to come over here again it’s Miller’s birthday on friday so we’re having a party here if you two want to come. I was going to invite Reyes too and she’ll probably bring Griffin with her. O and Lincoln will be there too of course.”

Harper replied, “Yeah that would be nice, thanks for the invite.”

Bellamy left to meet a friend and the trio continued to pick songs to play on the show. They picked at least one song off each album Miller owned. 

When they finished Harper said, “I think you should spread Monty’s question time out throughout the show or Monty should talk more about himself and his life in the spaces between songs. The listeners seem to like that.”

Octavia thought that was a good idea. Monty didn’t mind doing that but he wasn’t sure that his listeners really did enjoy listening to him ramble about his life.

“Do you think it’s late enough for us to go back now?” asked Monty after they finished planning the show. It was a little after 11pm.

Octavia frowned. “It’s so wrong that you even have to ask that.”

“God I know,” groaned Harper, “Yeah let’s just go, fuck Jasper.”

Monty laughed before saying, “Okay but I’m going to text him that we’ll be back soon.”

“I bet he’s gonna be such a dick to us when we get back.”

Octavia sighed, “It’s awful that he’s like this now, he used to be so nice, he was annoying but in a sweet way.”

Monty nodded in agreement, grinning at her comment. Harper and Monty made their move to leave.

 

*

Raven smirked at Monty. “There’s a lot of questions about Miller today and quite a few about Jasper too.”

Octavia had gotten sick earlier that day and had dragged herself to the radio station until Monty and Lincoln told her she had to go. Of course she resisted so Lincoln rang Bellamy to get her. Bellamy eventually got her to agree to leave and Monty got Raven to step in for her.

“Oh great,” said Monty sarcastically.

Before the show Monty had decided to not share with his listeners the fight that he’d had with Jasper.

Taking Harper’s advice, he’d talked more about his life during the breaks in between songs but had only mentioned that things with Jasper had gotten worse recently, not going into any specifics about why. 

“Oh my god this is so weird,” exclaimed Raven, “People are referring to your relationships with Jasper and Miller and jonty and minty.”

Monty was shocked and disturbed by this, he squealed, “They gave us ship names?”

Raven burst out into loud, boisterous laughter. There were tears in her eyes.

“Are you going to ask me a question or just laugh at me?” demanded Monty.

“Probably just laugh,” answered Raven, after a pause she decided to ask, “This is an anonymous question on tumblr, you have a lot of those. Okay the question is you got really emotional when you talked about Jasper, are you sure you don’t still like him? Romantically?”

Monty pulled a face at Raven as if to ask her ‘really why that question?’ but then replied, “I definitely don’t like him romantically, I loved him, I still do really, but it was just a platonic friendship love thing. I guess I’m just bitter about him ditching me for a girl. We were really close, like did everything together since our freshmen year of high school close, we’ve lived together for over a year now too. I never thought this would happen to us, but no, there’s no jonty romance.” He chuckled slightly after finishing his answer.

Raven looked at him skeptically. “I don’t know Mon, you know I think you too would be good together… another anon asked is miller you’re rebound crush after jonty ended?”

“This is the last…” he did air quotes around the next word “jonty question I want to answer Raven,” frowned Monty, “Miller isn’t a rebound crush. I had a thing for him when me and Jasper were still getting along, the Miller thing started when he sat in front of me in math class. It had nothing to do with my…” he put emphasis on the next word “friendship with Jasper. Why do you think we’d be good together Ray?”

Raven shrugged, pausing for a moment to gather her thoughts. “I guess because of the history you two have and um because before all this shit you two made each other really happy.”

Monty shook his head. “I guess, but he has one this to me before, ignored me for girls, but it’s usually lastly a few days not a few months. Um maybe you like ‘jonty’ because you relate to it?”

“Because of Finn?” She responded immediately, it was obviously a thought that had crossed her mind too.

He nodded in response. He didn’t want to question her about it in case she didn’t want to say any more.

“I miss him,” admitted Raven, “What he did was terrible but I want him back in my life, which is so stupid.”

“It’s not, you grew up together, was your date on saturday with him?”

They were talking like they weren’t on the radio right now. Despite the microphones and equipment surrounding them, when they were talking to each other it was a strangely easy thing to forget.

“No it wasn’t, but I’m still not telling you who it was with until I know if it’s gonna go somewhere okay?” she said, Monty nodded in response. “But yeah I was thinking about texting Finn to see if he wanted to meet up?” Raven said it like it was a question.

“I think you should, but speak to Clarke about it first okay?”

“Of course, roommate code and all that,” she said with a grin that didn’t quite meet her eyes and a hint of worry in her tone, “I think Finn might go to the party on Friday, anyway, um, let’s do another question, let’s move on to Miller ones, I think this is from Harper actually, what’s your favourite thing about Miller?”

Monty rolled his eyes when he found out Harper had asked that question. “His beanies probably, he looks good in a beanie.” Raven shook her head at him and raised her eyebrows. She obviously didn’t feel like that was a good enough. “Okay fine, I like talking to him, he’s quiet so when he makes an effort to speak to you it’s nice, it’s like I know he doesn’t hate me at least, and yeah, he’s really honest with people. That’s what I like… um.”

Suddenly he felt really awkward and embarrassed. Raven seemed to pick up on it and changed the question topic.

“This is an anonymous one, tell us about your friends that aren’t Jasper?” 

“Oh I like one,” bubbled Monty feeling excited to answer the question, “Well you guys all know Octavia, yeah she’s the best, she spends so much time working on this little show with me, picking songs and thinking of things to say and do, she’s the reason it’s not terrible. When I met her I thought Octavia was this adorable little freshmen but no, if she likes you she’s the sweetest person ever but she can also be slightly terrifying. I’m really good friends with her boyfriend Lincoln too who works here at the station as like the assistant manager. He’s really kind and funny and he adores Octavia which is lovely to see.”

Raven coughed loudly and dramatically. “Yes Raven I was getting to you to. I just realised literally all my friends that aren’t Jasper or Lincoln are girls.”

“You’re living up to stereotypes Monty,” chided Raven teasingly.

Monty chuckled at her. “I know I’m terrible. Um Raven’s great, we met through Finn who we were just speaking about, she was in my engineering class last year but we didn’t speak until after the finncident.” Raven giggled at that word despite it’s meaning. “She’s the only friend I have who I can talk engineering with, which is nice since I’m an engineering major. Raven is sarcastic as fuck, incredibly intelligent and I love her a lot.”

“Thanks babe.”

“You’re welcome,” replied Monty, “Raven’s roommate Clarke is another friend of mine, I met her the same time as Raven.” He didn’t really want to go into more detail about it. “She’s an art major and she works at Sky Bakery. Clarke is the mum of our group, she takes care of us but she’s also very rebellious and loves to argue with everyone.”

Raven corrected him. “Clarke likes to debate people.”

“Argue, debate, whatever,” mumbled Monty with a smirk. “Lastly there’s my favourite roommate Harper, she’s just really caring and friendly and a great listener, she really takes an interest in people but she also constantly takes the piss out of me. She works with Clarke too. So yeah that’s all my really close friends.”

Raven beamed. “That was really sweet Monty, you’re adorable.”

“Thanks” he said blushing quite a bit.

*

Harper and Monty arrived at Miller’s party together after texting Octavia to make sure she was there already. Bellamy answered the door. Their apartment was full of people, most of which they only vaguely recognised. Miller was sat talking to Roma from their math class. Monty tried not to be jealous. 

Octavia yelled, “Monty! Harper!” Rushing towards them pulling Lincoln along with her.

They all greeted each other. Monty looked around the room again, checking if Raven and Clarke were there yet. 

Octavia commented, “You got Miller a present?”

Monty was holding a poorly wrapped object in his hands. He explained. “Harper got it. I don’t even know what it is.”

“But it is from the both of us,” informed Harper, “I did make you pay for half of it.”

Lincoln suggested, “You should go give it to him.”

“I don’t know if I want to interrupt…that.” He glanced over at Miller and Roma sitting and giggling at each other on the sofa, well she was giggling, Miller seemed to be smiling but it was hard to tell with him.

Roma caught him looking over and yellled, “Monty! I didn’t know you were here! Hi! Come here!”

Monty looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Octavia and Lincoln couldn’t hold back their laughter. Harper nudged him, hissing, “Go over. Now.”

Somehow he got his feet to start moving in the direction of Miller and Roma.

“Look who it is Miller,” said Roma in a teasing voice. Miller appeared to be blushing. 

Monty managed to mumble. “Hi.”

Miller just nodded in response.

Roma squealed, “Did you get him a present? He got you a present! Open it!” She took the present off Monty and placed it in Miller’s lap, staring at him expectantly.

Monty explained nervously whilst pulling at the ends of his cardigan, “It’s from Harper too.”

Miller unwrapped the present. It was a green beanie.

When he looked up at Monty, Miller was beaming at him. Monty had never seen him smile like that before (like a normal person). 

Miller rambled, “Thank you, you guys really didn’t have to get me anything, this is really nice, I really like it, thank you, tell Harper I said thank you.” 

Monty had never heard him babble like that either.

“I will, I’m glad you like it.”

Roma said, “Do you guys want anything to drink? I’m going to get myself something, sit down Monty, I’ll bring you both a beer, sit!”

She got up and walked towards the kitchen area where the drinks were. Octavia, Lincoln and Harper were stood chatting there.

Octavia introduced herself but Roma said, “Oh yeah I know who you are, you do the show with Monty, I’m glad you’re feeling better, we missed you on Wednesday.”

“Thank you,” grinned Octavia, “So if you listen to the show you know about…” she gestured at Monty and Miller.

Roma replied, “Minty, yeah, those two are adorable.”

Monty and Miller were still sat next to each other on the sofa. When Roma left Monty started the conversation by asking, “Are you having a good birthday?”

“Yeah it’s been okay,” replied Miller, “I’m not really a birthday person but Bellamy is so he organised this for me, he did it last year too.”

“That’s nice of him, he did well, it’s a good party.”

“Good. Bell said you and Harper came round here last week when I was with Murphy?”

Monty explained, “Yeah Jasper kind of kicked us out of the apartment.”

“Why?” asked Miller.

“He wanted to have his girlfriend round and we don’t really get along with her, which is mostly Jasper’s fault, not her’s,” answered Monty.

Miller paused for a moment, then wondered, “Did you and Jasper… did you used to date? Did you break up?”

“No we didn’t date!” assured Monty feeling slightly alarmed that the guy he liked thought he’d been dating someone else, “Did you think we were together?”

“No well kind of maybe,” admitted Miller, a small, embarrassed smile on his face , “I used to see the two of you together all the time, you were always together.”

Monty admitted, “Yeah we were, we’d been best friends since our first year of high school, we were really close.”

“Until he got a girlfriend?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s so fucking cliched,” laughed Miller, shaking his head and making Monty grin, he put his hand on Monty’s knee and Monty’s heart stopped, “Let’s go get a drink, I think Roma got distracted.”

For some reason, most of the people at the party seemed to be congregated in the kitchen area of Bellamy and Miller’s apartment. It was a strange party fact that despite all the other areas they could be standing in, everyone seemed to enjoy standing in the kitchen the most. The apartment had an open plan living area so there was a large area to hold a party in. With everyone stood in the kitchen, the rest of the apartment seemed slightly empty.

Harper didn’t look happy as Monty and Miller approached her. She frowned. “Finn’s over there.”

“Great,” groaned Monty.

“Oh yeah, you guys don’t like him do you?” asked Miller.

Harper answered, “Not really no.”

“Sorry he’s a friend of Murphy’s, I felt like I had to invite him.”

“Hey I heard my name!” yelled Murphy, he wasn’t standing far away from them as he was also in the kitchen area, he moved closer to them but continued to yell, “Monty!”

“Hi Murphy,” grinned Monty.

“Monty!” repeated Murphy, he’d obviously had a few drinks already, “It’s good to see you! Have you met my girlfriend Emori? We live together. I live with her.”

Emori looked like she was used to this behaviour from Murphy, she smiled at Monty apologetically and took her boyfriend’s hand.

Monty said hello to Emori and then Murphy said, “I see you’ve been talking to Nathan,” then he turned to Miller and winked at him. Monty wasn’t sure what to make of that.

“Nathan,” repeated Monty with a chuckle. He wasn’t used to hearing people call Miller by his first name.

Murphy exclaimed, “You don’t call him Miller do you?!” He seemed very shocked. “Everyone calls him Miller. You should call him Nathan, don’t call him Miller, call him Nathan.”

“Stop calling me Nathan,” demanded Miller, his voice softened as he smiled at Monty, “You can call me Nate if you want to.”

“OH MY GOD!” gushed Murphy his eyes wide. Emori decided this was the moment where she should drag him away to the sofa’s so he could sit down.

Harper was having a laughing fit next to them. Monty tried his best to ignore her. Miller… Nathan... Nate was no help. Nate grabbed a drink off the table and offered it to Monty. He was blushing. 

“Thanks Nate,” smirked Monty, he liked saying that more than Miller and when he saw the way Miller smiled at him after he said it, Monty was sure he liked hearing him call him Nate.

Miller decided to go mingle with some of his other friends and left Monty in the kitchen with Octavia, Lincoln, Harper and Roma. The four of them listened intently as Monty relayed (briefly) the conversation he’d had with Miller.

Raven and Clarke arrived soon after and Monty had to repeat the conversation again to them. It dawned on him that a lot of people were getting involved in his relationship with Miller, the only problem was the fact that he wasn’t actually in a relationship with Miller, they weren’t even that close friends.

He watched Miller from across the room as his friends talked. He was holding a beer in one hand and his new green beanie in the other whilst talking to a group of people that included Finn.

Monty could tell that both Raven and Clarke felt uncomfortable with Finn in standing in the corner of the room talking to his friends. He didn’t think that the three of them had ever been in a room together before.

Finally he decided to suggest, “Why don’t you go talk to Finn, Raven? It’ll only get weirder if we all continue to ignore he’s here all night.”

“Okay,” agreed Raven visibly relieved that someone had made the suggestion instead of her. She shared a look with Clarke who nodded in response and then charged over to him before she could change her mind.

Harper said, “I can’t believe how cool you’re being about Raven wanting to be friends with Finn again, I don’t think I could handle it, you’re a better person than I am.”

Clarke blushed, mumbling at her that that definitely wasn’t true. 

“Aren’t you worried about them getting back together?” asked Octavia.

“Not really,” answered Clarke a flicker of worry seemed to appear on her face for a moment but she shrugged it off, her expression changing to her typical calm and collected look, “She’s seeing someone else at the moment, she still won’t tell me who he is but she said she really likes him.”

The group were astonished even Clarke didn’t know who her roommate was seeing. The two girls lived together and were best friends. Raven had the roommate code literally written down and stuck to their fridge. It was difficult to understand how she could hide this from her. 

Octavia changed the subject, smirking at Monty, “Lover boy is looking at you.”

“Please don’t call him lover boy,” sighed Monty but he still followed Octavia’s gaze to where Miller was standing with some friends. He looked a bit embarrassed about being caught staring at Monty but managed to awkwardly grin at the group as they all gawked at him with teasing grins on their faces. Monty felt bad for him but he mostly felt hopeful and confused. If Miller was really looking at him there. had to be a reason for him. Maybe he liked him too.

Octavia interrupted Monty’s train of thought, forcing him to finally look away from Miller. She exclaimed, “Monroe just got here, she’s my roommate,” she turned to Harper and said quietly, “I’ve actually been meaning to set you up with her, she’s asexual too but I swear that’s not the only reason, Monroe is lovely, I love her and you guys have other stuff in common too, she likes superheroes and comics and marvel movies and DC too, we dressed up as Wonder Woman and Supergirl for Halloween, she was Supergirl…”

Monty sneaked another look at Miller, watching him talk to his friends and wishing he was brave another to go up to him and join them. Lost in thought, Monty didn’t realise Miller was staring back at him until Lincoln tapped his shoulder and quietly informed him he was. 

He held Miller’s gaze for a moment before deciding to be brave and abandon his friends to talk to him again. Miller seemed surprised when Monty started to walk towards him but the look on his face stopped Monty from changing his mind and changing direction. That was definitely another smile on his face. Monty was sure he’d never seen him smile this much before.

“Hi,” said Miller as he reached him, he turned to his friends and repeated, “This is Monty.”

The group included Wells, Raven and Finn, who Monty already knew, and a Fox, Atom and Glass (Monty assumed they were nicknames but he wasn’t sure) who Monty hadn’t met before.

Raven and Finn were stood with the group but seemed to be having a separate conversation. Monty tried not to listen in to what they were saying. 

Monty made small talk with the people he didn’t know, they mostly talked about how they all knew Miller.

Wells gave him a knowing look and Monty remembered him giving him a similar one when Monty and been walking with Miller and Clarke after getting coffee at Sky. He doubted Wells listened to his show but admitted to himself it was a possibility. Monty suddenly felt nervous, looking around the room, wondering who else knew about his embarrassing crush on Miller.

Miller seemed to notice his awkwardness and suggested they got get another drink. 

As they walked past his friends, he noticed Harper talking with Octavia’s roommate Monroe. Harper caught his gaze and nodded at him, raising her eyebrows. Monty repeated the gesture back to her.

Miller passed him a beer and grabbed one for himself.

“Are you enjoying the party?” asked Monty after thanking Miller for the beer.

“Yeah I am,” answered Miller who seemed to be particularly interested in scratching at the label on the side of his beer bottle. 

Monty frowned. Miller had reverted back to his normal quietness. Monty wondered if he’d done something wrong but he wasn’t sure what that could be. 

He persevered with the conversation. He grinned, “I still can’t believe you thought I was dating Jasper, how did you know I was gay?”

“I didn’t know,” replied Miller. Monty didn’t know how to respond. The silence as Monty struggled to find something to say forced Miller to continue. “I generally try to not just assume people are straight. I’m bisexual so people usually assume I’m straight, it kind of pisses me off. Fuck heteronormativity ”

Monty chuckled at him. “Yeah... I didn’t know you were bi.”

Miller asked, “Clarke didn’t tell you?”

Monty shook his head, mumbling no.

“She tried to set me up with Wells once,” said Miller, “We went on one date but we decided we should just be friends.”

Monty felt a pang of jealously at the thought of Wells and Miller together, followed by an overwhelming sense of insecurity that came from comparing himself to Wells, who was generally accepted by anyone who met him to be one of the few examples of a perfect human being. He mumbled something unintelligible in response to Miller.

“He’s not really my type,” continued Miller.

“He’s not?” asked Monty incredulously. 

Bellamy walked over to them interrupting their conversation. “Reyes had been talking to Finn for a while, what’s going on there?”

Monty tended to forget that Bellamy knew all about what happened between Clarke, Raven and Finn. He had been Raven’s rebound after it happened for a couple months and even after their friends with benefits situation had ended, Raven and Bellamy had still managed to maintain a pretty close friends only relationship. 

“She wants to be friends with him again.”

Bellamy grimaced. “Why?”

“They grew up together, she misses him, even if he is a dick,” explained Monty. This managed to get a smile out of Bellamy.

Miller commented, “It’s kind of like you and Jasper.”

“Yeah well except for the fact we never dated,” said Monty, he turned to Bellamy, “Miller thought I’d dated Jasper.”

“Did you really?” exclaimed Bellamy smirking at Miller who glared back at him. “Isn’t Jasper really really straight?”

Monty nodded. Miller looked rather sheepish. 

Bellamy raised his eyebrows at Miller, giving him a similar look to what Harper gave Monty earlier, when Monty looked away. He asked Monty, “She doesn’t like him again does she?”

“No I don’t think,” answered Monty, “She said she’s seeing someone at the moment, Clarke said she really likes him.”

“Oh.. I’m going to go check on her, make sure Finn isn’t being too much of a dick.” Miller and Monty were alone again.

Miller decided to take Murphy a glass of water and Monty followed him over. As they talked to him Monty was sure Murphy was making some embarrassing comments about him and Miller but thankfully he could barely understand a word he was saying. Emori tried to get her boyfriend to drink the water but he continued slurring at the two boys.

“How did he get like that so quickly? Did he drink a lot?” wondered Monty as they walked away from the couple.

Miller answered with a grin, “I don’t think it has anything to do with what he’s drunk. I’m just gonna go to my room to get my phone. I left it charging… come on.” He made a gesture for Monty to follow him and Monty did, entering Miller’s room after him. He left the door open and Miller moved to close it. Monty tried to not read too much into that.

The room was impeccably clean, everything was organised and put into a certain place, there were no clothes laying around on the floor. It was the complete opposite of Monty’s room which had clothes, book and papers thrown around the room, on some days it was difficult to see the floor. 

On the walls were photos of Miller and his parents and some of a younger Miller with people Monty assumed to be his high school friends. Miller caught Monty looking at them once he’d grabbed his phone from the table.

“That’s my mum, Sophia,” said Miller pointing at the photo of him and his parents, “She died 6 years ago, it’s been just me and my dad ever since.”

Monty didn’t know what to say. He felt pleased that Miller had shared that information about his past with him but mostly felt sympathetic about what had happened to his mother.

“You look like her,” observed Monty with a small smile.

Miller seemed surprised. “Everyone always says I look more like my dad.”

Monty nodded. “You do but in that picture you and your mum have the exact same smile.”

Miller took a step towards the photo, looking at it like he’d never seen it before. He grinned, “Yeah I suppose we do.”

“You have a lot of books,” commented Monty changing the subject. 

There was a sizable bookcase in the corner of the room mostly full of classic literature, sci fi novels and every Stephen King book ever written. Other books of a similar nature were stacked in neat piles around his room, on the floor, on his desk and on his windowsill. 

“I’m surprised you aren’t an english major,” said Monty picking up one of the books on Miller’s desk and studying it. Monty had often seen Miller wandering around campus with a book in his hand but he hadn’t realised how extensive his interest in reading actually was.

Miller shrugged. “I thought about it at first but political science is more relevant for what I want to do after we finally graduate. My mum was an english teacher. That was one of her favourites.”

Monty hastily put the book down, apologising for picking it up. “Sorry I should have asked before I just grabbed it.”

“Monty, it’s fine, I don’t mind,” insisted Miller, “You can borrow it if you want. It’s one of my favourite Austen novels too.” He’d picked up Emma.

“Um thanks, yeah, I would like to read it,” said Monty, “The only Austen I’ve read before Pride and Prejudice but I really like it.”

Miller told him that Pride and Prejudice was his favourite Austen and instructed him to come and get the book before he left the party, then they decided to go back out and join their friends. 

Monty hung around Miller for the rest of the party, they talked to Monty’s friends and mingled with all of Miller’s friends, some of whom Monty knew and some who didn’t. Sometimes they separated and talked to different groups but eventually they unintentionally found there way back to each other.

He had made a conscious effort not to drink too much that night in case drunk Monty decided to declare his huge crush to Miller. He’d also stayed away from the pot that Murphy had offered him. It was probably the first time in his life that he’d turned pot down. The revelation made him strongly feel the absence of Jasper in his life. Unfortunately his friends didn’t feel the same way as him about drinking that night, he dragged a stumbling, slurring Harper home in a taxi at around 2am. Monroe came with them but she slept on their sofa. 

*

The sound of his phone ringing woke Monty up early the next morning. His blindly reached out for it, the lack of a usual headache after a night out made him thankful that he’d managed to stick to not drinking too much.

“Have you heard from Raven?”

“Clarke?”

Clarke repeated, “Have you heard from Raven?!”

“No why? Is she not with you?” asked Monty sitting up. The tone Clarke was using was making him start to panic.

“I left without her last night, I have to go into work soon, she told me she’d get home a few hours after me but she’s not here, she didn’t come home last night,” said Clarke, she was rambling, she took a deep breath before continuing, “Would you call her for me? I know I should’ve done it but I’m worried that she might be with Finn. I don’t think I can...”

Monty cut in. He didn’t want her to have to think about it anymore. “Of course. I’ll call her now.”

They finished the conversation quickly and Monty dragged himself out of bed. He walked into the other room and put on a pot of coffee while dialling Raven’s number. The sofa where Monroe had slept that night was empty. Monty didn’t think too much about that.

No one picked up the phone. Monty tried again.

“Hi, uh, Monty, hey,” mumbled a sleepy Miller.

“Nate, hi,” replied Monty almost dropping his cup on the floor in surprise, “Is Raven there?”

Miller answered, “Yeah she’s just here… Raven it’s Monty, yeah it’s your phone, you left it in my room? um she says she’s eating breakfast and that she’ll call you back in a bit.”

“Okay.” 

He went over the words Miller had said in his head. Raven left her phone in his room. In Miller’s room? Why would it be in Miller’s room?

Monty felt a sweeping sense of panic came over him. He wanted to cry. He wanted to be sick. 

Before Miller could respond Monty said bye and hung up.

After that short conversation, Monty sat down before picking up his phone again to call Clarke. She was on her way to work so they couldn’t talk for long. He appreciated not having to answer any questions about why Raven was at Millers because he didn’t have the answers and really didn’t want to think about it.

He put his phone down and got himself some more coffee. 

His phone started ringing again before he’d even picked up the coffee pot. It was an unrecognised number.

“Hello.”

“Mon it’s Raven, on Miller’s phone, I think he still has mine,” said Raven surprisingly chirpy considering it was so early in the morning, “I rang you on his phone so he’d have your number, I’ve saved it to his phone, clever right?”

Monty struggled to process this new information. So she hadn’t.. of course she hadn’t…they were best friends. 

“Yeah clever,” affirmed Monty speaking slowly.

He heard another voice through the phone. “Do you want more?”

“Yes please Bell,” she answered, “Bellamy’s making me pancakes. They’re good.”

“Bellamy,” repeated Monty, suddenly it dawned on him, “You’re seeing Bellamy! You guys are dating now? You aren’t just…”

“Sleeping together?” she finished with a laugh, “No, I held out this time for a bit, well until last night.” 

He could hear Bellamy laughing in the background.

Monty sighed, “Thank goodness.”

“What?”

“Thank goodness you’re seeing Bellamy and not with Finn,” explained Monty, “Clarke was…”

Raven interrupted him. “Oh that’s why she didn’t call, did you…” she stopped speaking for a moment, Monty assumed Bellamy was saying something to her but instead she continued with, “Sorry I borrowed your phone, I’m talking to Monty, here talk to him, here…”

Monty could hear what he thought was the phone being passed between two people. Soon he heard Miller’s breathing down the phone and a slightly awkward sounding, “Hi Monty.”

“Hi,” repeated Monty. The sound of Miller’s voice made him feel embarrassed about hanging up on him so quickly earlier that morning.

“How are you feeling this morning?” wondered Miller.

Monty answered, “Good, I didn’t drink much last night, are you okay?”

“My head hurts a bit but I’m not too bad,” he replied, “Could’ve done with a bit more sleep though.”

“Sorry.”

Miller quickly assured him, “No no don’t apologise, it’s Raven’s fault for leaving her phone in my room.”

“Yeah I did wonder how it ended up in there,” admitted Monty. He was thankful this was a phone conversation so Miller couldn’t see him blushing. Monty felt pretty embarrassed about having a small panic about Miller and Raven earlier.

“She borrowed my charger,” explained Miller, he paused for a moment before changing the subject, “So what are you doing today?”

Monty sighed. “I have a couple essays to complete and I have to start those questions for math, I’ll probably start them and then get breakfast or lunch with Harper, depending on what time she wakes up. Have you got any plans?”

“I’m going home to see my dad,” answered Miller.

“Oh good, is it a long journey?” asked Monty while mentally cursing himself for being awkward with Miller again. This stupid crush was getting in the way of them at least becoming decent friends because he couldn’t be normal around him.

“A few hours,” replied Miller, “I’m taking the train, I should probably get going now actually, I’ll see you in class okay.”

Monty frowned. He didn’t want to stop talking to him. “Okay yeah bye Nate, have a good weekend with your dad.”

Miller ended the call quickly. He didn’t linger on the goodbye, but Monty supposed that he wasn’t the type to chatter.

No one else was up in his apartment so he had another cup of coffee and took a shower. By the time Harper and Monroe trudged out of Harper’s room Monty had already started on one of his essays.

Monty didn’t ask any questions when the two girls came out, he smiled at Monroe and offered her coffee which she politely declined before heading out. Monty was finding it difficult to get a read on Monroe, her outward appearance presented her tough and straight faced but her mannerisms made her out to be sweet and nice. Harper seemed to like her which was all that really mattered to Monty.

As soon as she left Monty grinned at Harper. “I’m sorry, I don’t want to come off as ignorant here but aren’t you both asexual?”

“Yes we are!” yelled Harper blushing madly and hitting Monty’s arm gently out of annoyance, “We didn’t have sex Monty! We talked and cuddled, it was nice, I like her, she’s sweet.”

Monty said, “Good, I’m glad you like her, Octavia loves her so I’m sure she is really nice.”

“She is.”

Harper got ready and the two of them went to Sky to see Clarke and get lunch. They filled Clarke in on the Raven and Bellamy situation in her break. She was surprised but pleased. Monty thought Clarke was mostly relieved that Raven definitely didn’t still have feelings for Finn.

“Does Octavia know?” asked Clarke.

Harper laughed, “I doubt it, if O knew they we’d know already, she’s a terrible secret keeper.”

“True,” agreed Clarke, “Are you guys coming to mine tonight? I’ll have to check with Raven when I see her but it should be fine.”

Monty said, “Yes please, if that’s okay with you guys, Jasper hasn’t said anything to us about tonight but it’s probably best to not organise anything at ours for a bit.”

Harper launched into a rant about Jasper. Monty tried to feel as angry as her but he couldn’t get rid of that sad, empty feeling the pit of his stomach that he got every time he thought about how awful his relationship with Jasper was. He knew he was being a dick but Monty couldn’t help but miss their friendship.

*

“Okay this is a great question,” beamed Octavia, her eyes wide and excited. Monty loved seeing how happy she was when she was doing a show with him. “I think you’ll be fine answering this, but we can skip it if you don’t want to. This is a question from lexxbian on tumblr, when did you come out and what was your experience of coming out like?” Octavia added, “Are you okay to answer that?”

Monty nodded quickly, reassuring her it was fine. He thought about his answer for a moment before replying, “I came out towards the end of my first year of high school. The first person I came out to was my best friend at the time, Jasper. I was worried since we were so close that he wouldn’t want to be friends anymore after I told him but his reaction was incredibly positive. I was a terrified and confused 15 year old and he reacted in exactly the way that I needed him to. Once I’d told him I told my parents pretty much straight way. I love my parents a lot and we’re very close but they definitely didn’t take it as well as Jasper. My mum was actually more upset than my dad. I think she was mourning the loss of this picture perfect future she’d had planned out for me with this beautiful Korean wife and the 2.5 children we would have. But they realised how upset I was and they got themselves together and of course, they did some reading on the topic of having a gay son and realised that it didn’t change anything between us. I hadn’t changed. They hadn’t changed. Our relationship didn’t need to change. So after a couple months things went pretty much back to normal. They even tried to set me up with guys. They introduced me to my first boyfriend Henry, we dated for about 4 months, my parents adored him. But yeah, that’s my experience. Personally it was a really difficult time for me but I know other people have parents and friends who are drastically less accepting than mine were. I have a friend, I won’t say their name, but her parents pretty much kicked her out when she took a girl to their senior prom. She hasn’t spoken to them since. If any listeners want to share their experiences of this then call us now. All of our contact details are on the website.”

The rest of the show mostly consisted of people calling up to talk about their experience of coming out. It was a mixed bunch of positive and negative stories. Monty didn’t know a few of the callers and some were people he only vaguely knew. It made him realise how many people were listening to his show these day. He was proud about it but also a bit nervous. 

Harper rang in to confirm she was the girl in Monty’s story.

“I’m a biromantic asexual,” she admitted, “My parents didn’t even know that was a thing before I told them. I broke up with a guy they really liked to secretly date my first girlfriend. When I came out just before prom all hell broke loose. My grandma took me in after that. I don’t speak to my parents anymore.”

Clark called up too.

“My mum didn’t really care about me being bisexual, she was more upset about me wanting to major in art instead of premed.”

Monty and Octavia played a few songs in between calls but they didn’t manage to get through all of their setlist that show. 

Before the end Octavia said, “I think before we finish you’ll have to update the listeners on your relationships with Jasper and Miller? Or should I say Nate now?”

“I guess he did tell me to call him Nate,” acknowledged Monty blushing slightly, “We went to Nate’s birthday party last week, I spoke to him a lot there, it’s nice to be able to have a friendship with him that’s outside of class.”

Octavia added, “And hopefully that can develop into something more.”

“Maybe, probably not,” declared Monty quickly before switching to talking about Jasper, “Things are better with Jasper now. We’re all speaking again. Not speaking as in we’re friends but we’re all polite to each other and we can talk about flat stuff without it being too awkward now. It’s better than ignoring each other. I miss how our friendship used to be but I doubt it could ever go back to how it was now.”

“You never know, it could change back,” encouraged Octavia looking at Monty with big, sad eyes, she didn’t like how this situation with Jasper still hurt him, “You two were friends for so long, if Jasper gets his act together and really apologies I think it would be worth trying to make things work.”

Monty sighed, “But he’s not going to apologise, anyway, that’s the end of our show, thanks for listening everyone!”

*

Monty met Clarke and Miller for coffee the next day before class. He walked into Sky with Clarke to find Bellamy, Raven and Miller sitting at a table together.

The first thing Clarke said was, “Don’t you have class now?”

“I overslept so I decided not to go ,” answered Raven, “Bell isn’t as good at waking me up on time as you are. He’s meant to be in class now too.”

“You’re a bad influence on her.” Clarke shook her head at Bellamy disapprovingly.

Bellamy looked sheepishly at Clarke who sat down next to him glaring at him. Raven laughed at them, squeezed Bellamy’s hand but then continued to tease him about what a terrible boyfriend he was with Clarke. Monty felt a small pang of jealously when he saw how happy and adorable Bellamy and Raven were together. He wanted that. 

Monty turned to Miller. “Hi Nate.”

“Hey,” responded Miller, “How are you?”

They made small talk for a bit and then Monty offered to go get drinks for everyone and Miller came with him. 

“How was your weekend with your dad?” asked Monty as they stood in the line to order. It took him a while to notice that Miller was wearing the beanie Monty and Harper had given him for his birthday. When he did he started to blush and stared at his feet for a moment.

Miller answered, “It was good thanks, I hadn’t seen him in a while, I actually hadn’t seen any of my family in months but most of them came round for my birthday.”

“That’s good,” said Monty, “Did you see any of your old friends when you were home?” He was thinking about the pictures of high school Miller and his friends that Monty had seen on his bedroom wall. Miller had had a lot of friends in high school.

“Yeah I saw a few,” replied Miller, “Some of them still live there and some stayed close when they went to college so they came back to see me. I went out for drinks with a couple of my old teammates but I wasn’t really up too drinking much after the party.”

Monty laughed and mumbled something about how it had been a good party before placing the groups drink orders when they got to the counter.

After placing the order they had to wait for the drinks. Monty decided to ask, “What sport did you play in high school?” 

“Baseball,” informed Miller, “I play here too. You should come to a game.”

“I will. If you want me to.”

Miller shrugged. “Yeah I want you to. Come cheer for me. Make me a poster.”

“Okay I will,” he said beaming at him.

Clarke was relieved when they got back with the drinks. She ordered Monty, “Don’t ever leave me alone with them again.”

“They’re cute,” he responded beaming at the couple who were chatting to each other. Bellamy was absently playing with Raven’s hands on the table. Monty liked seeing Raven look so happy.

“No.”

Miller reached down into his bag and pulled out a book. He seemed shy as reminded Monty, “You forgot to take this on Friday.”

He handed Monty the book, Emma, and Monty grinned at him. “Oh yeah, thank you, I was going to get it but then I had to carry Harper to the taxi and I couldn’t carry that too, thanks for remembering.”

“It’s okay,” replied Miller looking at his hands instead of at Monty.

The other three were silent watching the exchange. None of them were making any teasing comments which was unexpected but all of them did have playful smirks on the faces. The sight of the three of them looking at him and Miller like that made Monty feel nervous.

Bellamy turned to Monty and Clarke. “Are you two free next Saturday? Not this Saturday, the one after. Miller and I are having a dinner party and you’re invited.”

They both confirmed that they were free. 

Clarke teased, “A dinner party, how fancy.”

“I’m only doing this to impress you princess,” responded Bellamy with a smirk, “I have to get on your good side, I think it’s part of the roommate code, and we all know how fancy and rich you are.”

Clarke sighed dramatically and protested. “My mum is rich, I’m not, I’m normal.”

Miller commented, “People that insist they are normal usually aren’t normal.”

“I used to like you,” huffed Clarke crossing her arms, exasperated.

“I’m sorry for teasing you princess,” apologised Bellamy using a more sincere tone despite his use of the nickname, “We’re actually hosting this because I’ve been teaching Miller to cook since the day we met and I think my apprentice is finally ready to showcase his skills to the world.”

Raven joked. “Or to 5 people in your apartment.”

Bellamy informed. “Not only 5 people. O and Lincoln are coming too and Harper can come too and I’ll invite Monroe if those two are still seeing each other. If you want to bring a date you can too Clarke.”

Clarke laughed. “Thanks Bellamy but I doubt that’s going to happen, Harper will probably bring Monroe though, they seem to be getting along pretty well.”

The group talked more about the dinner party plans and weekend plans too. Miller ended up inviting the whole table to come watch his baseball game on Sunday morning.

Eventually Clarke, Monty and Miller decided they probably should get going to class. They left Bellamy and Raven at Sky. The couple hadn’t said they were skipping all their classes that day but Monty assumed they would be. He looked back at them as he walked away and felt that familiar pang of jealousy again. Now the others had left, the couple were holding hands over the table. Raven was laughing at something Bellamy had said and he looked ecstatic about having made her smile. They seemed happy.

“Hey are you Monty Green?” A girl Monty didn’t recognise approached them as the trio walked to class. “I’m Lexa, I work at the radio station too.” Monty quickly panicked at the mention of the radio station in front of Miller. The anxiety he felt must have been evident on his face because the girl continued to say, “I really wanted to meet you, I wanted to talk to you about some… radio things, is this a bad time?”

Monty explained, “I’m on my way to class now but I could talk for a couple minutes.” He turned to Clarke and Miller. “I’ll catch you guys up okay?”

They agreed and left to go to class leaving Monty alone with Lexa.

Lexa was pretty famous at the station and around campus. She was there most popular DJ. She was also a good friend of Lincoln’s, they were in a band together but they’d been taking a musical break since the start of that year because they were too busy to rehearse. Octavia had met Lincoln at one of their gigs in her senior year of high school.

When they were a safe distance from his friends Lexa grinned at Monty. “I’m guessing that guy was Miller?”

Monty nodded. “Yeah he is… wait you listen to my show?”

She admitted, “I’ve only been listening for a few weeks but yeah I do, you’re really good. And I uh… I asked you the coming out question.”

“You did?” exclaimed Monty. He was shocked that they were having this conversation. Lexa was the queen of radio on campus. Monty had listened to her even before he’d started working at the station.

Lexa nodded and said, “I wanted to talk to you about something but we don’t have a lot of time to talk now, do you think you could meet me another day to talk about it? We could meet at Sky Bakery at 3 on Saturday? You know Sky’s right? Your friend works there doesn’t she?”

“Clarke? Yeah she does....”

Monty assured her that he would be fine to meet on Saturday whilst trying to tone down his excitement and appear casual. He had no idea what Lexa wanted to talk to him about but he eager to find out.

Class was about to start when Monty hurriedly dashed in, taking his normal seat next to Clarke, he quickly told her what he and Lexa had discussed but there wasn’t much to say. 

Professor Jaha informed the class that there would be a small test next week.

Clarke groaned and whispered to Monty. “There goes my weekend plans.” He knew she had a planned to finish a couple paintings that weekend and she had to work saturday too.

After class Miller and Monty walked together to their next lectures. Miller complained about the test next week too. “I had plans with Murphy for tomorrow but I’m going to have to cancel them to study, are you free tomorrow night? To study together?”

Monty was caught off guard by his question, “Um yeah yeah I am.”

“Okay good,” responded Miller animatedly, “We can study at mine if you want but Bell might have Raven round or we can go to the library?”

“Or we could study at mine?” offered Monty, “Harper is out with Monroe tomorrow and I don’t know what Jasper is doing but he’ll probably be out with Maya too.” 

Miller agreed to study at Monty’s and thanked him inviting him round. They chatted a bit more before heading to their different lectures. 

*

Octavia and Monroe went to Monty’s apartment that night due to a spur of the moment invitation from Harper to come round after she’d finished work.

Monty teased her relentlessly about how much time she was spending with Monroe and even Jasper asked her about what was happening with her and Monroe. Jasper was home that night too but he wasn’t irritated about them having people round so they invited him to eat with them.

Octavia was startled when she saw him stood in the kitchen chopping vegetables with Harper.

“Hey Jasper,” she grinned before taking over the chopping Harper was doing so that she could talk to Monroe. Jasper and Octavia started to chat and catch up. It was a strange site for Monty. He remembered the conversation he’d had with Octavia on Wednesday about his friendship with Jasper reverting back to the way it had been. It almost seemed like that was what was happening tonight but Monty wasn’t convinced.

They cooked a stir fry for everyone with only vegetables for Monroe who was a vegetarian and added chicken to the rest. 

Monroe and Octavia talked about living together and how lucky they’d been to be roomed with each other. Monty soon realised Monroe really was as lovely as Harper and Octavia had said. She had a tough exterior with her intimidating stare and a clearly visible tattoo but once she opened her most that image disappeared. Monroe was adorable, she was constantly sweet to Harper but had hilarious banter with Octavia. She fit in well with the group.

Octavia asked Monty. “How was coffee with Miller today?”

“Good,” he replied, “Bellamy and Raven came too, and Clarke of course.”

“Of course,” she repeated with a grin, “Bellamy is seriously infatuated with Raven, I really hope she likes him as much as he likes her.” The tone of her voice suggested she was worried about her brother.

Monty tried to reassure her. “Well they were disgustingly adorable this morning, Raven definitely likes him a lot, I’ve never seen her like that before.”

“Oh good, that’s sweet,” Octavia looked visibly relieved by this. “And how was Miller?”

Jasper turned his head towards Monty, he had a blank expression on his face but Monty could tell he was unsettled by the mention of Miller. Monty wondered if Jasper had only now realised that Monty’s life had continued to progress even after their friendship had ended.  
“He was fine,” answered Monty but he knew his face was turning red, “He’s actually coming over here to study for a test we have next week.” He turned to Jasper. “Is it okay if he comes round tomorrow? You don’t need the place for anything do you?”

Jasper appeared slightly embarrassed, as if Monty asking him this had reminded him of when he’d yelled at Monty and Harper. “No I’m going out with Maya so I won’t be here.” Jasper paused for a moment before adding, “Is Miller your boyfriend?”

“No he’s not, we’re just friends.”

Harper snorted in response to his reply and Octavia giggled. Even Monroe was smirking at him.

Monty protested, “Nate is just a friend!”

“Of course Nate is,” cooed Octavia putting emphasis on his name whilst tilting her head to the side and giving him a patronising smile.

Jasper asked, “Did he ask you to study together or did you ask him?”

“He asked,” answered Monty wondering what Jasper meant by that question.

Jasper grinned at him like he used to back when everything was normal and the two of them were inseparable best friends that were part of every great memory the other had. “If he organised for the two of you to study together alone then he probably does like you, otherwise he would’ve invited other people, like he could’ve invited Clarke but he didn’t because he wants to spend time with you.”

Octavia nodded in agreement and then squealed. “Miller likes you back, I can’t wait to tell the whole world about this on Wednesday.”

Monty mumbled, “The whole world doesn’t listen to my show.”

Talking about the show reminded Monty of the conversation he’d had with Lexa that day. He filled everyone, but particularly Octavia, in on what she’d said to him. 

Octavia had no idea what it could be about either but she was excited. “Lexa is great, I used to think she didn’t like me but once I got to know her better I realised she’s just really intense and confident and she never smiles, I really like her.”

“You like everyone,” said Harper.

“Not everyone,” disagreed Octavia, “I don’t like Finn or Lincoln’s other bandmate Caris, she definitely likes him, and I’ve never been a big fan of Murphy. I find him creepy.”

Monty pointed out. “Everyone finds him creepy but he saved me from having to live with crazy Finn.”

Octavia conceded. “Finn is a lot worst than Murphy.”

Harper and Jasper nodded in agreement but Monroe didn’t really know who either of them were, she’d only ever seen them at the party.

*

Harper was getting ready for her date with Monroe the next day. 

“Do I look like I’m trying to hard in this dress?” asked Harper.

Monty didn’t even look at her when he answered. He was distracting reading a recipe for mac and cheese. “No you look good. Do you think I should text Nate that I’m making food? He might eat before he gets here and then I’ll be eating alone or I won’t eat at all and I’ll be hungry. I’ll text him. Or would that be weird?”

Harper yelled at him. “You didn’t even look at me! Just text Nate and then help me! I’m actually going on a real date, you two are having a study date!”

“And I get hungry when I’m studying!” 

Monty picked up his phone and tried to send Miller a casual sounding text about mac and cheese.

Monty: I’m making some mac and cheese, do you like mac and cheese? if you want you can have some when you come round or you can eat before, whatever you want to do

He got a quick reply.

Nate: yeah I like mac and cheese, that sounds good, thanks :)

Monty stared at the reply for a few minutes deciding whether to text him back before throwing his phone down and trying to not be nervous about Miller coming round.

“Are you finished stressing about food now?” asked Harper standing in the doorway into her room watching Monty with her arms crossed, “Because I really need help picking something to wear!”

“Okay what are your options for tonight?” He walked over to Harper forgetting the pile of ingredients on the kitchen counter that he’d only moments before been stressing over. Monty sat himself down on her bed as she showed him the outfits she had to choose from.

Harper proceeded to try on four different outfits while she and Monty discussed the suitability of each one for the date and whether she looked good in it. Monty told her she looked beautiful in everything. Harper agreed with him.

Jasper knocked on the door to see what was going on.

“I’m liking this dress,” said Harper, “It’s nice but it’s casual, I look like I’m making an effort but I’m not overdressed.”

Jasper agreed. “Yeah you look good in that.”

“Thanks,” she replied with a pleased smile. After last night Jasper had been a lot friendlier but Monty got the sense that something was bothering him.

Jasper asked, “What time is Miller coming round?”

Monty leapt up off the bed in a panic. “Oh shit he should be here soon, I was meant to make food for us.” He rushed into the kitchen where he rediscovered the forgotten ingredients for dinner on the kitchen counter.

Harper laughed at him and apologised for distracting him for cooking. Monty mumbled that it wasn’t her fault but he was stressing staring at the ingredients as if they would magically turn into mac and cheese if he looked at them for long enough.

“You really like Miller huh?” asked Jasper with a stony expression on his face.

Monty was too occupied to notice his disgruntled tone, he answered, “Yeah I do, I have for a while.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” wondered Jasper. Monty finally looked over at him and noticed how agitated and resentful he seemed. He sighed, resigned to the fact that their friendship was definitely never going to go back to the way it had been before. “I literally know nothing about you anymore, you don’t tell me anything, you don’t talk to me.”

Harper bounced into the room with, irritated, “If you still listened to his radio show he wouldn’t have had to tell you, he talks about Miller on it all the time, but you don’t give a shit about him or me or anyone that isn’t Maya so you don’t know what’s going on in our lives anymore.”

Jasper was frustrated by this accusation. “I don’t know what’s going on because you two don’t tell me, you pushed me away after I started dating Maya.”

“We didn’t push you away you left us for Maya!” argued Monty raising his voice, which is something he usually let Harper do instead.

“You pushed me away!” he insisted, “You replaced me with Harper and Clarke and Raven and Octavia and now Miller, you got new friends and you didn’t…” 

He stopped yelling due to a knock on the door. The three of them paused to all stare at the door that Miller was patiently standing behind waiting to be let in, completely oblivious about the argument he’d interrupted. 

“Your dates here,” snapped Jasper, “I’m going to Maya’s, I’m not coming back tonight.”

“Good,” yelled Harper as he walked away from the opening the door to let Miller in before storming past him without a word.

Miller stood in the entrance staring at them, his expression was a question, what had happened here?

Harper let out a groan and pulled at her hair frustrated. “We need to kick him out and get a new roommate.”

Monty stood opposite her in a daze, clearly upset about having another argument with Jasper after he’d thought things between them were finally starting to improve.

“Sorry Miller we’re completely ignoring you,” sighed Harper gesturing him to come into the apartment, “We had a fight with Jasper which sucks because things we’re actually starting to get okay again.”

Before Miller could respond Monty snapped out of his trance and yelled, “Crap Nate I haven’t even started cooking our food yet, shit I’m sorry, I got distracted by Harper’s clothes and arguing with Jasper.”

“It’s okay,” responded Nate looking at Monty like he was thought he was adorable, even Monty noticed the look and unexpectedly became overwhelmed by a feeling of butterflies, “We could make it together before we start studying?”

Harper disappeared back into her room to finish getting ready while the boys started to make their dinner together.

Miller avoided asking about the fight with Jasper while cooking which Monty was thankful for. The argument had started because of Monty’s not telling Jasper he liked Miller and had morphed into an argument about something more. Monty couldn’t help going through what Jasper had said in his mind and trying to make sense of it. Did Jasper feel like Monty and Harper were in the wrong not him? That they’d been the ones to push him away? Monty couldn’t understand it. 

After cooking together in relative silence for a few minutes, only interrupted by questions about the recipe, Monty realised that he was wasting the limited amount of time he had with Miller stressing about his irreparable relationship with Jasper.

“How was your day?” asked Monty before noticing how awkwardly domestic that sounded.

Miller answered, “It was good, I got this essay back that I was sure I’d messed up because I didn’t understand the question at all but I actually managed to bullshit enough to get a good grade, how was your day?”

As he answered Monty’s question Miller casually made his way over to the fridge to get out some milk for the cheese sauce. Monty felt an overwhelming sense of longing watching Miller make himself at home in Monty’s apartment. He wanted this to be a regular occurrence. He wanted Miller to be a constant presence in his daily life.

“Mostly good,” answered Monty, “Until the fight with Jasper.”

“Yeah he look pretty angry when he walked past me.”

Monty frowned at the macaroni he was stirring in a pan of boiling water, trying to think of how to respond, “He was, it was weird, everything was fine between us and then he suddenly snapped. It irritating because yesterday we we’re getting along really well for once and now we’re arguing again.”

Miller was obviously trying to not ask what the argument was about. He didn’t want to pry. Instead he mused, “I don’t understand why he’s angry with you and Harper, I don’t think you guys have done anything wrong.”

“That’s what I’m thinking!” exclaimed Monty exasperated, “He complained about how we don’t tell him things and said that we pushed him away but we thought he was the one that did that to us.”

Miller looked up to meet Monty’s eyes, giving him a sympathetic smile, he said, “Jasper probably knows he was a dick but it’s hard for people to admit when they’re wrong, it’s easier to blame other people. And, don’t take this the wrong way, but you and Harper might have closed ranks after Jasper started to ignore you guys, you were hurt so you shut him out, which you weren’t wrong to do, but Jasper probably expected to be able to spend a lot of time with his girlfriend and then to be able to come back to you guys with nothing changed and he’s pissed it didn’t turn out that way.”

As the two of them had gotten closer the conversations between them had improved greatly but Monty was still astonished by the speech Miller had just made, Monty had never heard him talk for that long before. 

“You’re probably right,” acknowledged Monty taking a cheese grater out of the cupboard and passing it to Miller who was starting to open the packet of cheese, “Sometimes I do feel bad for how quickly we shut him out, but we did it hoping he’d realise we were upset and then he’d apologise and we’d forgive him and everything would go back to normal but now things will never go back to how they were.”

“Yeah I doubt you and Jasper will ever be how you were,” agreed Miller, “But that’s just life you know? People’s relationships change, it doesn’t mean you can’t be friends again, even if you aren’t as close as you were.”

Monty started to say something but was interrupted by Harper reentering the room. He was grateful for the interruption because Monty felt self conscious that Miller was getting bored of hearing him whine about Jasper but despite that Monty knew that if allowed he could go on moaning about him for hours. For some reason, Monty found complaining very easy to do. 

Harper seemed calmer and happier than before, grinning at them from across the room, now completely ready to go out on her date having done her hair and makeup and putting on suitable shoes.

She spun herself around and asked, “How do I look?”

They both responded with compliments, which wasn’t surprising since they weren’t about to insult her but also because she did look good. Harper had on the casual floral dress that she’d picked earlier which she’d dressed up with some heels and by curling her hair and adding a few small braids to keep the hair off her face.

“See you later Monty,” said Harper as she was leaving the apartment for her date, “Bye Miller.” 

The two guys were left alone in the apartment. They finished cooking and sat down to eat and to finally begin studying.

“I hates matrices,” moaned Miller pushing the textbook towards Monty to take a look at the problem he was struggling with after they’d been studying for a while.

Monty sympathised, “That question is a bitch.”

Miller hummed in agreement, smirking at Monty and making Monty barely able to concentrate on math problems, distracted by the look on Miller’s face. He bit his lip nervously and fiddled with the pen in his hand, trying to focus on matrices instead of Miller. 

It was impossible.

“We should have asked Clarke to come,” said Monty thinking back to what Jasper had said at dinner the night before about why she hadn’t been invited, “She’s better at this than us… no offense, I mean, not that you aren’t clever, you are, I…” he rambled, feeling embarrassed and even more flustered.

Miller laughed at him. “Yeah no, I know what you mean, Clarke is a genius, she’d know how to do this question.”

“Let’s just skip it and do the next one,” suggested Monty.

“Good idea,” agreed Miller, he turned to the next page of the textbook but then paused to look up at Monty for a moment, “Did you invite Harper to mine and Bellamy’s thing next week? You’re still coming aren’t you?”

Monty grinned teasingly at him, he reaffirmed, “You mean to your dinner party? Yeah we’re both coming and she’s going to mention it to Monroe tonight, providing the date goes well.”

“Those two met at my party last week right?” asked Miller and Monty nodded in response, “I feel like a matchmaker.”

“I think technically it was Octavia that set them up not you, she invited her to your party.”

“Yeah but it was my party! And it’s my dinner party!” exclaimed Miller animatedly.

Monty beamed at him, pleased by how comfortable Miller seemed to be at that moment, his tone constantly flippant and teasing with a distracting smirk still present on his face that stirred up persistent butterflies in Monty’s stomach. It wasn’t a feeling that Monty experienced often and that fact convinced him that Miller was important to him. He liked him a lot.

“Okay okay you can have some of the credit for them getting together,” conceded Monty, “A small percentage, 12%.”

“12%?”

Monty nodded.

“Okay Pepper,” smirked Miller getting his Avengers reference straight away.

He shook his head and corrected him, “Actually I think that that would make me Iron Man and you’d be Pepper.” Monty knew he was blushing after comparing him and Miller to two people who were actually in a relationship but he held his gaze despite his discomposure.

“I don’t mind being Pepper,” shrugged Miller looking into Monty’s eyes, “Pepper is a badass. She pretty much saves the day in every Iron Man film.”

“True. We should watch Avengers while we study.”

“That sentence was almost perfect until that last few words.”

Monty chuckled at him, standing up to walk over to the sofa. “Come on then, we’ll watch avengers, not study and fail our test.”

“I like that plan. Fuck math.”

“Fuck math,” agreed Monty.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't have anything else written yet but have the rest planned out if anyone wants me to continue this.
> 
> Thanks for reading it!


End file.
